Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs (UK edition)

Title: Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson 10)
Author: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit (9th March 2017)
Blurb:

MECHANIC. SHAPESHIFTER. FIGHTER.

Mercy Thompson has found her voice in the werewolf pack. But when her bond with the pack – and her mate – is broken, she’ll learn what it truly means to be alone.

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against Alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes – only to discover that she is alone in the heart of Europe without money or clothes.

Unable to contact her pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, but first she needs to figure out which is which . . .

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Review:

SILENCE FALLEN is the tenth book in Patricia Briggs’s brilliant Mercy Thompson series. Although not a werewolf, Mercy has settled into her place in her pack. After some pack bonding, Mercy finds herself attacked and abducted by the most powerful vampire in the world. This vampire plans to use her against her husband and the vampires of the Tri-Cities. Never one to sit and wait for rescue and unable to contact her pack, Mercy escapes from the vampire in her coyote form only to discover she is no longer in the US – instead, she finds herself without money, passport, or clothes in Europe.

This review may be a little biased, because Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series is one of my favourite series in the urban fantasy genre – and this book reminded me why I enjoy the series so much. SILENCE FALLEN was an enjoyable read, and once I started I had to reach the end. Briggs created another interesting and enthralling tale that kept me hooked from the moment I picked it up. This book focuses very much on Mercy, which I really enjoyed. It was also nice to see the return of some familiar faces, though I wish there had been more of them.

This is a bit of a spoiler, but as the blurb gives it away I think it’s okay to talk about it: a lot of SILENCE FALLEN is set outside of the US. I really quite enjoyed this change of scenery. I can’t comment on how accurate it is, as Mercy didn’t visit a country I’m familiar with, but I think Briggs did a good job writing the places. Being outside of the US also meant that there were hints of what vampires and werewolves were like somewhere else – I actually found this quite interesting, and it definitely added to my enjoyment of the book.

The plot of SILENCE FALLEN is pretty similar to previous books in the series; nevertheless I found it an enjoyable read. My only slight gripe was that there seemed to be a lot of plots within plots all interlinked together, and it seemed terribly overcomplicated – but, I suppose, life can be like that too. And in some ways it felt a bit bitty too. Having said that, I think Briggs did a good job in keeping track of all the different plots and bringing the story to a believable conclusion.

To me SILENCE FALLEN feels like a complete story, rather than part of a series. I also think it works well that Briggs splits the narration of the book between Mercy and Adam; this allows us to gain a broader idea of what is going on, and although Briggs plays with timelines I didn’t find the narration confusing. SILENCE FALLEN is a great addition to the Mercy Thompson series; Briggs returns with another brilliant book, expanding the world and characters. If you have read an enjoyed the previous books in the series then you will enjoy this one too; a good, solid continuation on the series.